Blog Post 5

The author, Rupert Scofield, gives advice on hiring workers for an organization. He explains the different types of people that are important to a company. He classifies them into builders, maintainers, fixers and destroyers.
A builder will help you build the company up and take it to the next level. There are three important traits for a builder. The first is a vision of what they want to accomplish in the future. The second is their impatience with the status quo, they want to create something new and different. They want to own a new accomplishment for the organizations. The final trait is that they have a "almost inhuman work ethic," they are willing to work non-stop to try and fix a problem.
A maintainer are people who are doing what is needed to be done but not expanding on their work further then needed. They are still important to keep the organization going.
The fixers are people who are people who like to "clean up other people's messes." They basically fix the problems that other people have made in the company. They need to create a sense of urgency within the staff. The staff need to know that the fixer is their to fix the problems otherwise the company is going to collapse and they will be out of the job. He also mentions that there will be three type of staff, 1. the people who know that things need to change in order to get back on track, 2. the people who are on the fence and need a little bit encouragement to help out and finally 3. the people who just don't want to help out and will undermine the fixers efforts. He suggests firing the people who are categorize in group 3. Even though this seems harsh, I believe that this needs to be done. In a company you need your staff to be motivated to work and not try to interfere or undermine your efforts. He says to fire the fixer after his/her work has been done because they will get bored quickly. This tends to lead to bad things.
Finally a destroyer is a person you don't want to hire but might still weasel their way into the company. There are two types of destroyers, one that just neglects his or her work and eventually everything falls apart. The other one is a good talker and says that they are doing something but they aren't making progress. He suggests to fire these people immediately.

All these people are important to a company.

Blog post 2

In The Social Entrepreneurship Handbook the author talks about how it is important to hire the right people for a non profit. He explains how current employees are important to bringing people into the company. If the employee has good experiences they will tell their friends and try to recruit them. Also to have a recruiting bonus will be a good incentive.

Also a good website is important at targeting people. He says that many people he has interviewed have talked about what they saw on the website. He also says to put video of the beneficiaries and have them talk about how the organization has directly helped them.

He also gives a forewarning about people who have an impressive resume and talks about wanting to switch from a for-profit job to a non-profit. When they get the job they bail on the company because they either got a raise from their boss or got another offer that was too good to turn down. This makes me think of people who act interested in something and just don’t show up or do the work that they are suppose to do. From my experience working in groups I think that it is vital to find people who are willing to work with you and be efficient and effective. Sometimes it is hard to get people like this, either they stray away from the project at hand which is something that the author continues to talk about in this chapter. He says that keeping your employees motivated and make sure that they know the mission of the company is important and to do this he suggests to get people are working in the offices to go out and see how their work actually helps people. When they gain experience and see things hands on they will be more motivated and work harder.

week 4

Although I haven't agreed with everything that Rupert Scofield, the author, has said in the book so far I find his advice on being a sort of middle man for a project or organization something that I wish I knew earlier. Scofield identifies being a middle man is trying to control an employee who doesn't follow orders from the boss. He advises for the middle man to 1. listen to all points of view and let each person make their case, 2. "hold back on your own opinions until everyone else has had his or her say." and 3. try to get colleague to listen to each other. These steps aren't easy to follow but I think if people try and follow these steps not just to be a middle man but to be more open to new ideas. Something that I have learned these past 4 years in high school is that you have to hear every side to a story before you make assumptions. Thinking like this has given me new perspective on a lot of things.
Scofield also mentions a person that is commonly found in an organizations. He calls this person "the visionary" because this person has new ideas that could improve the organization. He advises to support this visionary on his ideas and projects because this could help the organization to grow. I agree with this because some people are more creative and have more ideas that need to be represented.

Week 3

The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook by Rupert Scofield is an interesting read but there are parts of the book that I disagree with. For example, the section called 'The Importance of a Finding a Mentor' assumes that a person can easily find a mentor in their field or occupation and this isn't always true. Some people struggle to find a mentor for various reasons. When Scofield explains how to recognize potential mentors he says that they have to notice you first. I truly believe that this isn't always true, it might be true in some cases but not all of them. My personal motto is "No one else is going to do it for you. If you want it bad enough go out and do it yourself." I believe that most of the time your boss or mentor won't always have time to mentor. But my views are biased and focused on big corporations. Personally I have worked hard to get recognition from my mentors. I stayed after every meeting at Brookline Teen Grant Makers last year to help clean up and talk to Jennifer about the program and just life in general. I think I made a real connection with her and I also believe that she is an amazingly kind person. Over the summer when I had an internship at Harvard whenever I was finished with my work given to me, I would check in with other people in the office if they needed a hand on anything. When I did this I got one of my bosses to notice me and appreciate that I went the extra mile to help out. I think if you want someone to be your mentor you have to get noticed not wait to be noticed.

Another part of the chapter addresses the fact that a lot of colleges these days do have a type of social entrepreneurship program. The author at first discredits them not believing that they really teach student about social entrepreneurship. But once Scofield talked at many schools like Columbia Business school, he started to approve of the programs. Personally I think that schools teaching about social entrepreneurship is important. I believe having the opportunity to work with BCF has made me realize that there is a lot of trouble in this world and that I can take part in fixing it.

The Social Entrepreneurship Handbook- Week 1

I am reading The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook How to Start, Build, and Run a Business That Improves the World. The beginning of the book the author, Rupert Scofield talked about his personal and near-death experience of working in other countries around the world. For example, he shares his story about having to run from an angry mob in Somalia because of an misunderstanding with a driver. I enjoy how the Scofield starts the book in a light-hearted and amusing fashion.
Scofield says that a lot of publicly funded non-profits are constantly criticized because their employees have never actually lived in poverty. He continues on to say that if the organizations don't close the "empathy gap" their employees won't have the understanding that is needed to help others. This is something that stood out to me. I believe that there is more to life than just the facts. Like in Brookline the poverty percentage is higher than the state's average. Most people say,"okay" and move on with their lives. But I believe that there is more to it than just the fact. When I hear this fact I am automatically drawn to the question "why?" I want to know why this is happening in our community and how I can help decrease the percentage.
As I continue reading the book, the author discusses the main differences of working for a small non-profit or a large one. He discusses the fact that small and local foundations make a huge positive impact to the people that they serve. This reminds me of the Brookline Community Foundation and the meeting the Brookline Teen Grant Makers (which I participate in) had this past weekend about choosing a focus area of our grant making. A member pointed out that the goal is for our funding to a make a positive difference in someone's life. This is a goal that I feel people can stray from.
Scofield says that while working for a large non-profit can give you financial stability it can also have less entrepreneurial opportunities and less of a chance to direct the future of the organization. This is something that is true when working for large companies as well as non-profits. I also have come to understand that it can take a long time to work up the ladder at a company or organization. Scofield also shares an anecdote about a person named Craig, who has worked for a lot of different for-profit companies before working for a non-profit. After a while Craig was more satisfied with his job because he enjoyed his work and felt like he was making a positive difference. This is something that sticks out to me because of my previous experience of volunteering this past summer at Harvard Alumni Association. Although the experience working there was wonderful I think I enjoyed volunteering at the Brookline Community Foundation more. This is because I felt that I was actually making a difference in my community and helping people around me. I believe that people should do volunteer and help their communities and also learn about what is actually happening in their community.

Week 5 - book

One of the chapter titles, "Make your partner a real partner" is a very interesting chapter. Even though I don't have to think about marriage for a while. It is interesting to hear her perspective on how to balance home and work life. Sheryl Sandberg talks about her personal struggle of trying to balance being at home for her kids and to be at work and how during the beginning it was hard to balance things because her husband was away for work most of the time. 

She also talks about a study at Harvard Business school a professor asked about what men can do to advance women's leadership? The professor said to do "The Laundry" like do the mundane household tasks like buy groceries, wash the dishes, etc. I think that this is important because men should take more of an initiative to do these tasks.

She also says that the most important decision for a career women is to choose a life partner and who that person will be. Which sounds logical and simple but when you think about it there are a lot of aspects in choosing the right person. Obviously you want to choose someone who would support you in all your career decisions. She also quotes many married female CEOs that said they couldn't make it without the support of their husband, helping the children and their willingness to move. 

Personally when people ask me if I want to get married in the future (which is a long time from now) I usually say no. Mostly because if I say yes, people ask if I am in a relationship, when I plan to get married, etc, Actually mostly my grandmother on my dad's side asks this but I still don't want to think about these things. I want to concentrate on myself and my own future not about settling down. I am too young for that and I have so much more to explore in the world before I start to even think about it. So I say no, even though I do say yes in my mind. I don't want to be held back by the expectation of dropping everything and taking care of a kid(s) in the future. 

Also I feel like when girls are young the expectation that is put on them is to grow up and get married. I just don't promote that. I think a girl needs to figure out what she likes and wants to be when she grows up and a marriage can come later. Because there isn't enough women in many fields like STEM. As a woman I want to break the glass ceiling and I hope to encourage many young girls to aim high and never stop trying. As cliche as that sounds, young girls just can't stop fighting. Also I have heard from one of my french teachers that Ms. Gurry (a french teacher at BHS) wanted to be a pediatrician when she was in high school but one of her science teachers told she wasn't good enough to be one so she became a teacher. That truly upsets me that someone would say that to her but also she would give up like that. I have taken a class with Ms. Gurry before and I know that she is smart and very capable. I could definitely imagine her being a doctor. I just hate how people feel that they need to bring women down in society. Is it because they feel a sense of authority or power from it? Or they feel that it is their right? Either way it is just upsetting and disappointing. I know that whatever I do with my life in the future, I won't let anyone tell me I can't because I know that I can and that I will.

week 5 - in class work

This week has been crazy and hectic. We put together the slide for the presentation and it was hard to make the slide short without putting too much information.
I was trying to find more ways to market the water bottles to students. One of my teachers suggested that we try and sell them at a sports game. So Peter and I tried to sell them at the freshmen basketball game. Unfortunately, people weren't very interested. But I did request a table outside of the cafeteria for lunch, Nitzan, Alex and Noah were there at lunch. When I saw them at second lunch it seemed that they sold water bottles. Right now we are calculating how many we sold and how much we made.